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Review
. 2021 Mar 20;10(3):587.
doi: 10.3390/plants10030587.

An Overview on the Conservative Management of Endometriosis from a Naturopathic Perspective: Phytochemicals and Medicinal Plants

Andreea Balan  1 , Marius Alexandru Moga  1 , Lorena Dima  2 , Catalina Georgeta Dinu  3 , Carmen Constantina Martinescu  2 , Diana Elena Panait  2 , Claudia Alexandrina Irimie  2 , Costin Vlad Anastasiu  1
Affiliations
Review

An Overview on the Conservative Management of Endometriosis from a Naturopathic Perspective: Phytochemicals and Medicinal Plants

Andreea Balan et al. Plants (Basel). .

Abstract

Background: Endometriosis is a chronic and debilitating disease, which affects millions of young women worldwide. Although medicine has incontestably evolved in the last years, there is no common ground regarding the early and accurate diagnosis of this condition, its pathogenic mechanisms, and curative treatment. Even though the spontaneous resolution of endometriosis is sometimes possible, recent reports suggested that it can be a progressive condition. It can associate chronic pelvic pain, vaginal bleeding, infertility, or malignant degenerescence. Conventional treatments could produce many side effects, and despite treatment, the symptoms may reappear. In recent years, experimental evidence suggested that plant-based medicine could exert beneficial effects on endometriosis and endometriosis-related symptoms. This study aims to highlight the pharmaceutical activity of phytochemicals and medicinal plants against endometriosis and to provide a source of information regarding the alternative treatment of this condition.

Methods: For this review, we performed a research using PubMed, GoogleScholar, and CrossRef databases. We selected the articles published between January 2000 and July 2020, written in English.

Results: We found 17 medicinal plants and 13 phytochemicals, which have demonstrated their beneficial effects against endometriosis. Several of their biological activities consist of antiangiogenic, anti-inflammatory effects, and oxidative-stress reduction.

Conclusion: Medicinal herbs and their bioactive compounds exhibit antiangiogenic, antioxidant, sedative and pain-alleviating properties and the effects recorded until now encourage their use for the conservative management of endometriosis.

Keywords: endometriosis; medicinal herbs; nutraceuticals; phytochemicals; traditional Chinese Medicine.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Endometriosis pathogenic mechanisms and the main mechanisms of action of various phytochemicals.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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